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The Sixth Floor

The spot from which the bullets were fired that killed Presidents James Garfield and William McKinley have been forgotten. But that obscurity of locale is not the fate of Lincoln's box at Ford's Theater in Washington, DC, and especially not the southeast corner of the sixth floor of the former Texas Schoolbook Depository in Dallas, Texas. This is where Lee Harvey Oswald stood on Nov. 22, 1963 and fired the single bullet that killed JFK -- according to some -- and an entire museum has been built around it.

The "sniper's nest" is the highlight here, sealed off behind plexiglass and reconstructed just the way that Oswald supposedly had arranged it. Views from adjacent windows on The Sixth Floor -- and from the sealed-off area via a web cam -- show that Oswald would have had an easy shot, straight ahead, as the motorcade drove at him on Houston Street. It makes one wonder why he instead waited until the motorcade had driven past, and was speeding away on Elm Street, just opposite the grassy knoll....

As one of its exhibits, The Sixth Floor shows clips from the Zapruder 8mm film, but not the bloody parts (To see those you have to go to the nearby Conspiracy Museum). In fact, The Sixth Floor stresses that everything in it is "suitable for family viewing."

No photography is allowed in The Sixth Floor, and the entrance is fortified with airport-style bag and body screening, both perhaps so that no lawful gun owner will be tempted to fire from here ever again.

The Sixth Floor

On the western edge of downtown. I-35 exit 428E onto Commerce St., drive east two blocks past the Cenotaph, then turn left onto Market St. Drive two blocks, then turn left onto Elm St. Drive two blocks, cross Houston St, and continue straight on Elm to the parking lot behind the former Texas School Book Depository. From there it's an easy walk to The Sixth Floor and Dealey Plaza.